Bosnian Serb Policemen Accused of Torture in Bileca

Prosecution witness Ramiz Babovic told the state court in Sarajevo on Tuesday that he was locked up on June 20, 1992, after reporting to make a statement at the police station in the south-west Bosnian town where other prisoners were allegedly abused.

He said that there were about 15 men in the room where he was held and one of them, Ismet Bajramovic, was taken out and beaten.

“He returned on all fours. He was in a terrible condition,” Babovic said.

He said that Bajramovic told him that defendant Miroslav Duka and another Bileca policeman indicted in a separate case, Nedjo Kuljic, had beaten him up.

Duka’s defence lawyer said that the witness didn’t specify who had beaten the detainee when he gave a statement to investigators in 2010. But Babovic said he didn’t mention Duka “by accident”.

Duka, a former police station commander in Bileca, is on trial with former Bileca police station chief Goran Vujovic and Zeljko Ilic, a former police officer. Kuljic was originally indicted alongside them, but the case against him was separated from the others.

Vujovic and Duka are charged with enabling and organising the detention of Bosniak and Croat civilians at the police station and student dorm in Bileca, where they were killed, tortured and abused prisoners, and Ilic is charged with participating in the physical and mental abuse, torture and killings of Bosniaks and Croats.

The witness said that after seven days of detention at the police station, prisoners were transferred to a student dorm. There, he said, one prisoner was taken out and tortured with electric current.

“When he came back, he was practically out of his mind. He was just lying for two or three days. He was practically dead,” the witness said, adding that the same also happened to another detainee.

Both the prisoners said that police officer Kuljic tortured them, he testified.

He also said that explosive devices were thrown into the room where the detainees were held, choking them and causing a fire.

“That was total chaos,” the witness said, adding that he heard from other prisoners that Duka and Ilic were responsible.

The defence claimed however that three police officers named Zeljko Ilic worked at the Bileca police station, suggesting that the witness might not be clear which one he was accusing.

Babovic said that he was finally released on October 5, 1992, three and a half months after he went to make his statement at the police station.

The trial resumes on October 28.